


Lateral Incisor

by zombified_queer



Category: Smile For Me (Video Game)
Genre: Adopted Children, Boris Habit is a Good Parent, Domestic Fluff, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Implied Neglect, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-12
Updated: 2019-10-12
Packaged: 2020-12-09 13:34:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 444
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20995643
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zombified_queer/pseuds/zombified_queer
Summary: Boris Habit inspects the space where Putunia's missing a tooth.





	Lateral Incisor

He was always careful when he picked her up, Putunia being so much smaller and so much more fragile than Habit. He set her down on the kitchen counter. She kicked her legs idly, heels thumping against the cabinets. She folded her hands in her lap, staring up at him.

“Papa, will it hurt?” Putunia asked.

“Of course not, Little Flower.” Habit smoothed her hair back. “I just want to take a look.”

Putunia opened her mouth wide, just the way he’d showed her. 

Habit took his dental mirror, inspecting her gums where the single incisor was missing. Habit worried for the longest time that it was chipped, that she’d need to have it removed, that she was in pain. Whichever parent had hit her, mercifully, knocked the tooth out in one piece. But the scarring on the inside of her lip upset him.

He removed the mirror from her mouth and set it down on the counter next to her. “You were very brave, Little Flower.”

“Can I go play, Papa?”

“Of course.”

She slid off the counter, landing lightly on the hardwood of the kitchen floor. She hugged him (already she’d grown two inches since the Habitat, though she was still hip-high to Habit) and scurried off to play.

Habit smiled, hearing her talking in the array of voices she used for her action figures. She had such a vivid imagination. He was glad she had these intricate games to occupy her instead of nightmares about all her teeth falling out onto the floor. 

Putunia breathed a certain life into Habit’s house, even when she was being difficult. He felt just as thankful for her tantrums as he did for her laughter.

He’d caught her trying to hold back frustrated tears once and told her Little Flower, in this house we cry when we are upset and smile when we are happy. We don’t hide the way we feel.

And that was all it took to break those unhealthy little habits.

He tried not to dwell on how she’d learned to hide her feelings, but sometimes Habit would reflect and it would upset him.

It was an odd case: her parents signed custody over to him and left town, every address and phone number being dead ends. Habit sometimes felt nothing but blind rage when he thought about it. These people had given Putunia her bones and blood, the freckles across her cheeks and nose. And then they’d hurt her smile and left her with the first person they could find.

He took a deep breath. She was only seven. The incisor would be replaced by something more permanent.

They would heal.


End file.
